TERMINAL 5: Bigger ships on the way

(WSB photo, January 7)

Two and a half weeks after the first cargo-ship call at Terminal 5‘s modernized north berth, its schedule is starting to fill out. MSC Arica arrived early this morning. Its capacity is 8,886 TEUs – but ships with almost twice that capacity are on the way. While the schedule frequently changes, currently 5 more MSC ships are penciled in – Monterey (4,860 TEUs, making its second visit) next Monday (January 31st), then three big ships – Margrit (13,604 TEUs) on February 6th, Virgo (15,000 TEUs) on February 11th, and Camille (14,028 TEUs) on February 14th – followed by Lisbon (9,784 TEUs) on February 17th. The bigger ships are newer, which may mean they’re able to plug into the berth’s shore-power system. Also of note – while the north berth continues ramping up operations, construction continues on the south berth, which is expected to be complete around year’s end.

Derek January 25, 2022 (12:23 pm)

What does this mean for our views of Seattle? Is it done for? From Avalon and Admiral areas specifically.

WSB January 25, 2022 (12:28 pm)

Well, there’s a ship there now. Is it affecting your view?
skeeter January 25, 2022 (12:34 pm)

You lose your view of Seattle but gain a view of a cool ship. So pretty much a wash.

Dale Swanson January 25, 2022 (1:07 pm)

This is good news. I was not a proponent of the expansion but hey I can roll with the punchs. Felt that it was not a great usage of dollars but thats democracy..you live with decision made by those elected to do so. Apparently, the two Southern California ports–Long Beach and Los Angeles grew by 13% in 2021 over their previous record year of 2018. Rail dwell time is down to 2 days from its peak of 13.5 days in the summer. That is the amount of time cargo waits on docks to be picked up and taken to its ultimate destination. Thats lower than Pre-Covid. Unfortunatly, Truck dwell time is at 6 days, atlhough down from 11 days over the summer.

anonyme January 25, 2022 (1:17 pm)

By all means, let’s not worry about the environmental devastation caused by these mega-ships, but let’s instead turn our attention to the loss of industrial views. I hope this comment was merely sardonic rather than tragically skewed, but something tells me otherwise.

Ron Swanson January 25, 2022 (2:47 pm)

Per ton of cargo transported, cargo ships are the most energy efficient method of transport by far. Thinking closer to home, converting the local fleet of drayage trucks that haul these containers short distances to railyards and distribution centers to electric would be a more useful thing to worry about.
My two cents January 25, 2022 (3:40 pm)

Back of the napkin math, roughly speaking the smaller ship would have to make 3 trips instead of the 2 for these larger ships. One would also assume that newer technology would be more efficient, safer. How would you propose the transportation of goods and service across the global economy?

cjboffoli January 25, 2022 (5:59 pm)

To hell with the views. Seattle is still there. Trust me. Let’s work down that supply chain backlog so this rampant inflation might be curtailed.

CarDriver January 25, 2022 (6:38 pm)

Still curious if SDOT will restrict freight trucks if they impact emergency vehicles or transit across the low bridge.

HarborIslandworker January 25, 2022 (7:20 pm)

CarDriver… freight trucks are considered foundational users. There’s two categories foundational users and conditional users. The foundational user group consist of emergency vehicles/transit vehicles/and freight vehicles. All the other users are considered conditional.

HarborIslandworker January 25, 2022 (7:24 pm)

CarDriver…

CarDriver January 25, 2022 (8:54 pm)

Harborislandworker. My comment is based on SDOT’s desire to not have ev’s and transit-and “essential freight” blocked/delayed. They banned cars because they believed they were certain to impact them. Not arguing they wouldn’t. My point is that a bridge full of freight vehicles will impede/impact ev’s and transit-and freight. So what would SDOT’s response be to that???

pt January 25, 2022 (9:04 pm)

Any idea when the south berth pile driving is expected to wrap up?

WSB January 25, 2022 (9:13 pm)

The work is in various phases, but the in-water work window – if the pile driving is in the water – ends February 15th.
- PT January 26, 2022 (7:45 am)
  
  Good to hear. Thank you